But ... the social imposition! Christ, what a socially awkward penguin the author must be. Here's a tip: You don't need to respond to a message just because som

But ... the social imposition! Christ, what a socially awkward penguin the author must be. Here's a tip: You don't need to respond to a message just because someone can see that you've read it. Full stop. Email, SMS/iMessage, Instant Message are all inherently asynchronous communication methods. Where applicable presence, read receipts, and typing notifications serve to provide metadata about the conversation. Without them you get other pointless communications -- "Did you get my text?", "Did you see my email?", "Hey, are you busy? Hello? Are you there?", "I'm not sure if you're getting these... I'm going to call you." They key take away here is that the author can no longer blatantly ignore people by pretending that he/she did not receive the messages.